Latest / Best of Business / Mark Troughear: Freightways CEO on the company reporting a decrease in net profits

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Mark Troughear: Freightways CEO on the company reporting a decrease in net profits · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk Z'B. Follow this
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio. Heather Duplessiel.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: One of the biggest delivery companies, Reckons. One of our
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  Speaker 2: biggest by the way delivery companies, Reckons. We're coming out
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  Speaker 2: the other side of our recession. This is Freightways runs
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand, Couriers runs Big Chill. Of course, it's recorded
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  Speaker 2: a five point eight percent decrease in its net profit.
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  Speaker 2: That's down to about seventy one million dollars. But the
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  Speaker 2: company is celebrating the result because it's whether the worst
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  Speaker 2: of our economic times. It Reckons, Mark trow Here is
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  Speaker 2: the Freightway CEO.
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  Speaker 3: Hey Mark, Hi, Heather, how are you.
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  Speaker 2: I'm very well, thank you. So are you seeing this
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  Speaker 2: as actually quite a small drop for how bad things
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  Speaker 2: have been?
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  Speaker 3: Yes? Yeah, in a word, yes, I think I don't
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  Speaker 3: know that it gets any worse than this, and it's
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  Speaker 3: been at this level for a wee while now, so
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  Speaker 3: now there's a little bit of light at the end
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  Speaker 3: of the tunnel that hopefully asn't a train coming the
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  Speaker 3: other way. With some rate cuts here in New Zealand,
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  Speaker 3: maybe gradually we can start to see someone proven as
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  Speaker 3: we get into need.
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  Speaker 2: What do you mean it doesn't get as bad as this?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think we've tracked our customer activity month or months,
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  Speaker 3: day on day for a long time now, and I
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  Speaker 3: think we're at at the moment seems to be as
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  Speaker 3: bad as it has been through that last eighteen months.
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  Speaker 3: We're not seeing it getting any worse. We're not seeing
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  Speaker 3: get better, but it's really stable in terms of the
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  Speaker 3: volume coming from our customers. So what we would hope
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  Speaker 3: is with a little bit of confidence from lower interest
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  Speaker 3: rates as we come into next year, that that volume
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  Speaker 3: then might pick up.
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  Speaker 2: Do you reckon it's going to make a big difference
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  Speaker 2: what happened with the ocr last week.
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  Speaker 3: I think it'll take maybex or so months to wash through.
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  Speaker 3: So our pick would be maybe after Christmas you're starting
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  Speaker 3: to see a few green shoots out there, So you.
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  Speaker 2: Think because I was kind of penning hopes on the
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  Speaker 2: fact that just that signal that we are through the
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  Speaker 2: worst of it would give some people some confidence to
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  Speaker 2: start spending that don't need to hoard for the big
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  Speaker 2: roll over on the interest rates and stuff. You don't
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  Speaker 2: think that will happen.
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  Speaker 3: I suspect it'll take a little while maybe for people
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  Speaker 3: to roll over their interest rates have a few more
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  Speaker 3: dollars in their pocket. There's tax cuts that we've just
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  Speaker 3: had as well, and again it's a small contribution to
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  Speaker 3: some people to put a little bit more money in
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  Speaker 3: their pocket. But my sense, my gut feel, is it
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  Speaker 3: might just take six months to wash through to see
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  Speaker 3: a little bit more volume ail.
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  Speaker 2: So still post the summer holidays before we really start
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  Speaker 2: to see a pickup in business.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think so. I mean, Christmas time is a
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  Speaker 3: busier time for us, but I don't think it's going
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  Speaker 3: to be that much busier than last year. I think
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  Speaker 3: we'll ride through that period and then in the new year.
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  Speaker 3: I mean some cases, it's businesses it might need to
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  Speaker 3: invest to grow their capacity, to push out a bit
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  Speaker 3: more frase and have a bit more activity. For things
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  Speaker 3: like the construction industry here, so we do a lot
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  Speaker 3: of a lot of work for people in the construction sector,
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  Speaker 3: and that sector is really down on the doldrums at
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  Speaker 3: the moment. It might take a little while for that
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  Speaker 3: sort of sector to flow through with better results.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I suspect it's going to be like we're not
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  Speaker 2: talking months. We're probably talking years, aren't we with them?
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  Speaker 3: Vent Essentially, we did a huge amount of work for
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  Speaker 3: people back in the if you remember the COVID days
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  Speaker 3: where you couldn't fly anywhere, but you can do up
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  Speaker 3: your house, and so you come off a high of
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  Speaker 3: that back and probably twenty twenty two and it's been
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  Speaker 3: really muted. But even sectors like that, I suspect maybe
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  Speaker 3: over the next six months just start to get a
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  Speaker 3: little bit of a lift.
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  Speaker 2: Here's the thing, Mark, I mean, if you listen to
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  Speaker 2: the likes of I think it was Fitch who said
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  Speaker 2: it a few weeks back, we I guess many of
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  Speaker 2: us are banking on bouncing out of this and just
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  Speaker 2: going back to sort of the hype of the last
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  Speaker 2: ten years once we get through the COVID stuff. But
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  Speaker 2: they were saying, temper you expectations because the Chinese economy
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  Speaker 2: is not doing that well and the recovery is just
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  Speaker 2: going to be pretty grinding from here. Is that what
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  Speaker 2: you were expecting?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think it'd be slow and steady, But that's
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  Speaker 3: all right for us. Slow and steady and even one
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  Speaker 3: percent two percent growth out of our existing customers that
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  Speaker 3: feeds our network pretty well, so we would be okay
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  Speaker 3: with that. We'll win a bit of new business. We'll
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  Speaker 3: attract a few new customers. Get our pricing right, you know,
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  Speaker 3: that be the worst out a good stuff.
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  Speaker 2: Mike, listen, thank you, appreciated, look after yourself. That's Mark
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  Speaker 2: trow here froat Way, CEO.
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